Michael R. Bloomberg

Michael R. Bloomberg is the 108^th mayor of the City of New York. He attended Johns Hopkins University and Harvard Business School.

He worked for Salomon Brothers on Wall Street beginning in 1966 and eventually came to oversee the firm’s information systems. Envisioning an information company that would use emerging technology to bring transparency and efficiency to trading financial securities, he started Bloomberg LP in 1981. Today, the company has more than 300,000 subscribers to its financial news and information service in 161 countries around the globe. Headquartered in New York City, Bloomberg LP has more than 10,000 employees worldwide.

As his company grew, Bloomberg directed more of his attention to philanthropy. He served on the boards of numerous charitable, cultural, and educational institutions, including Johns Hopkins University, where, as chairman, he helped build the Bloomberg School of Public Health into one of the world’s leading institutions of public health research and training.

In his first term as mayor, Bloomberg cut crime 20 percent, created jobs by supporting small businesses, unleashed a building boom of affordable housing, worked to revitalize the waterfront, implemented ambitious public health strategies, and improved the efficiency of government. He won control of New York’s schools from the broken Board of Education and began turning around the nation’s largest school district by injecting standards into the classroom and holding schools accountable for success.

Bloomberg was re-elected by a diverse coalition of support in 2005. In his second term, while balancing the budget and driving unemployment to a record low, the mayor also launched an innovative program to combat poverty, and a far-reaching campaign to fight global warming and prepare New York for an estimated million more residents by 2030.

When the current financial crisis hit, Mayor Bloomberg launched a plan to bring the city through the downturn as quickly as possible by creating jobs for New Yorkers today, implementing a vision for growing the city’s economy over the long-term, and building affordable, attractive neighborhoods across all five boroughs.

Mayor Bloomberg is the father of two daughters, Emma and Georgina.

Source: University Programs and Events Planning Resources, September 2009